John Roberts

“ Captain King had the honour of taking Lady Beresford down to dinner, and he sat between her and Miss Madge. It soon became apparent that there was going to be no lack of conversation. John Roberts, the soda-water manufacturer, was a man who had a large enjoyment of life, and liked to let people know it, though without the least ostentation or pretence on his part. ”

“ There were exclamations of protest from every one, even Doctor John, the avowed and consistent Whig,—every one but Glenowen, who smiled thoughtfully at Barbara's rashness.
"Tut! Tut! You little fire-eater!" exclaimed Doctor John. "You mustn't bring discredit on your party! We will fight with constitutional weapons for our just rights, and bring that pig-headed George to his senses. We must teach him to reign properly, and not to meddle, that's all. No throat-cuttings in the English family!"
"It would break my heart to fight against my countrymen," said Robert, earnestly. ”

“ In fact, it is hard to think of anyone who is more qualified to lead this nation’s High Court. Soon after graduating magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was managing editor of the Harvard Law Review. Roberts clerked for then-Associate Justice Rehnquist – a man whom he deeply admired. He worked in various legal capacities in the Reagan Administration and later entered private practice. Just two years ago, the Senate confirmed John Roberts for a seat on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. ”

“ What's a gentleman without loyalty? Surely the gentry must stand or fall with the king! Surely—"
"What nonsense, Robert!" interrupted Barbara, severely scornful, indignant at him for his views, but grateful to him for the opportunity to express her own with point. "Who was it that whipped King John into submission, and made him sign Magna Charta? Was it the riffraff or the gentry, I'd like to know? Where there is a real aristocracy, Robert, there is no need of kings!"
"Barbara, dear!" cried Mistress Mehitable, appalled at this sweeping heterodoxy. ”

“ At an hour almost unseemly Robert came, of course. And Barbara was gracious to him. As if there had been no estrangement, she talked frankly of Second Westings matters,—of Doctor John's service in the siege of Boston, of Doctor Jim's danger because of his opinions, of Mistress Mehitable's need of her presence at Westings House,—just as if they were Robert's concern as well as hers. The gladness came back to Robert's dark face, and for a moment he was forgetting the barrier between them.
"And what are you doing, Robert? Is it not becoming a little dangerous for you in New York now?" ”

“ It had been arranged that Robert should borrow a horse from Doctor John's stables, ride it over to Gault House, and keep it there till his return to Second Westings. But as he was strolling down the village street before breakfast, he saw, in a paddock beside an unpretentious cottage, a splendid Narragansett pacer, a dark sorrel, one of the handsomest of the breed that he had ever seen. He had long coveted one of these horses, famous in all the thirteen colonies for their easy gait, speed over rough country, and unparalleled endurance. ”

“ This appeal was to every one, but it was Robert, at last awaking from his rapture and finding breath, who answered:
"There was never anything else so wonderful in all the world," he said, solemnly.
Doctor John and Doctor Jim, with one impulse, jumped up, each seized one of Barbara's hands, and plucked her to her feet. They then stood hand in hand in a row before Mistress Mehitable and Robert, bowing their thanks for such appreciation of their poor efforts to please.
"We are going to London to perform before the king!" declared Doctor Jim. ”

“ It is perhaps open to question whether he would have succeeded so well as he did had he not had the help of such men as John Roberts (1576–1610) [q. v.] and John (Leander) Jones to supply the deficiencies of his character. ”

“ John was talking with quite a Western twang, as though he was determined not to be taken for an Englishman.
"Rain!" he was saying; "well, you bet it's something like it! On the lake it takes an old hand to know which is land and which is water. Old Hank was nearly drowned in his tent the other day."
"Serve him right!" growled Bill. "But who are you, young feller?—I never see you before, and I mostly know everybody in this country."
Harmer looked up coolly, and taking off his hat, swung it round. ”

“ His son was squeezed by the Court in King James his time of £20,000, so was made a Baron, and built the house of Lanhydrock, now the seat of Lord Roberts" (pp. 45, 46) . The hind, who founded the family, and sold wood and furze for the tin smelting, was Richard Roberts of Truro, who married Joan Geffrey of S. Breage, and died in 1593. His son, who continued the wood store and got paid in tin, was John Roberts, who married Philippa, daughter of John Gaverigan, of a very ancient family. He died in 1615.
Before the introduction of coal in tin smelting, the fuel employed was peat, furze, i.e. ”

“ Marion sat beside Jim McAllister, on his left. Jim, having taken his cue from his sister, racked his memory for nice things to say of Richard Sherwood. He sang Sherwood's prowess in field and stream. At last, spooning his preserves with his right hand, he let his left hand rest on his knee beneath the edge of the table.
“And brave!” he said. “You couldn't scare him! I never knew any man so brave as Dick Sherwood except only John O'Dell.”
Then a queer change of expression came over his face. Young Ben, who was watching his uncle from the other side of the table, noticed it instantly. ”

“ Lieutenant Roberts, with instantaneous promptness, took advantage of his captain’s suggestion, pushed off in the gig, boarded la Ville de Varsovie through the lower-deck port abaft the gangway, and, with the coxswain, John Newton, made his way through her crew, at quarters, to the poop. – Finding there an English union-jack amongst a confused heap of flags, dead bodies, and lumber, the coxswain proceeded with it flying in his hand, to the mizen-top-mast head, – a token of submission, and a hint to the British frigates to turn their fire to a more deserving object. ”

“ I muttered.
“S-sh-sh!” whispered Marc in my ear. “Not so loud, boy! Now, with this to dream on, go to sleep again. There’ll be something to keep us awake next night.”
“And when we’ve got the ship, what then?” I whispered, feeling no doubt of our success.
“We’ll run into the St. John mouth,” was the answer, “and then, leaving the women and children, with such men as will stay, at the Jemseg settlement, we will strike overland on snow-shoes for Quebec.”
“And I for Grand Pré,” said I doggedly.
I heard the ghost of a laugh flit from Marc’s lips.
“Good dog! Hold fast!” said he. ”

“ What are all these legal men but a pack of scoundrels? And you will talk to us of law and order, and threaten us with punishment for disobeying your commands and protecting our rights! What are we? Are we beasts? I tell you for one, sir, I shall protect myself, law or no law, judge or no judge, governor or no governor. I will not stand such infernal rascality, and if I have to fight it out, I will sell my life as dearly as I can."
A few days after this, Major Warren again rode into Nauvoo with his troops. ”

“ Senator Roberts was in the world of politics what his friend John Burkett Ryder was in the world of finance—a leader of men. He started life in Wisconsin as an errand boy, was educated in the public schools, and later became clerk in a dry-goods store, finally going into business for his own account on a large scale. He was elected to the Legislature, where his ability as an organizer soon gained the friendship of the men in power, and later was sent to Congress, where he was quickly initiated in the game of corrupt politics. In 1885 he entered the United States Senate. ”

“ But she managed to remember that even a very small girl may be heavy to carry over a rough road in the dusk, when the man who carries her has had a hard day's work chasing her. And, furthermore, she thought how very, very little, how poor and pitiful a heroine she would seem in Robert's eyes if he should chance to remember her existence and look back! She pulled herself together with a fierce effort, and choked down her sobs.
"Thank you so much, dear Doctor John!" she whispered in his ear. "I'm better now, and you must put me down. I'm too heavy."
"Tut, tut, sweetheart!" ”

“ During these memorable years he participated in the British Company's success and control in the Pacific Northwest, witnessed the challenge of American trappers and traders by land and sea, the arrival of the first American missionaries and settlers in the Oregon Country, their eventual dominance and the Company's decline and departure.
Like Chief Factor John McLoughlin, Roberts was among those Hudson's Bay and Puget Sound Agricultural Company officers who became American citizens rather than leave the region which had become their home and where they had families and interests. ”

“ Foxey Jack Quinn was not weatherwise, however. He climbed the path to the edge of the barrens and turned to the north.
"Diamonds white an' red," he muttered. "I seen 'em, and I knowed what they was. Every little stone bes worth more nor all the fore-and-afters on the coast. I bes a rich man now—richer nor the governor, richer nor any marchant in St. John's—richer nor the king o' England, maybe. Holy saints be praised! Never agin will I wet a line at the fishin' nor feel the ache o' hunger in my belly. Denny Nolan will soon be cursin' the day he batted me about like a swile." ”

“ The Shearwater was paid off at Portsmouth, in the beginning of 1822; and in June following, Captain Roberts received an appointment to the Thracian 18, fitting out for the Jamaica station, where his boats, under the command of Lieutenant Amos Plymsell, assisted those of the Tyne 28, Captain John Edward Walcott, in capturing the Spanish piratical schooner Zaragozana, mounting one long 18-pounder, four 9-pounders, and eight swivels, with a crew of from 70 to 80 men, of whom 24 were soon afterwards sentenced to death, and executed. ”

“ As the winter advanced, and the cold bit fiercer, and the snow gathered as if to bury the wilderness world away from sight forever, it came at last to seem as if the unknown purpose of the avengers was forgotten. No more, upon his tramps on snowshoes through the muffled woods, did John Hatch feel those admonitory creepings of his flesh, and presently he forgot all about the haunting shadows and their menace. ”

“ Few persons have served more constantly, and very few have experienced in greater abundance the hard rubs incident to a sea life, than the subject of these Addenda. – The certainty of death, if in our Country’s cause, carries with it a consolation,, and it is met with fortitude: but the dark sanguinary blow of the assassin brings no alleviation; and such was the character of an attempt made upon the life of Lieutenant Roberts, when belonging to the Courageux 74, in 1811. He had been sent on board the United States’ frigate Essex, lying at the entrance of Hamoaze, to claim a deserter ”

“ Captain Roberts does not appear to have been favored with the least chance of distinguishing himself, otherwise than by his careful attention to the trade constantly under his protection. Whilst on that cruise, he fell in with, and used every effort to get alongside of, a French frigate-built privateer, pierced for 36 guns, and apparently full of men; but owing to her superior sailing, and the darkness of night, she effected her escape without being brought to action.
On the renewal of hostilities, in 1803, this zealous officer was one of the first appointed to raise sea-fencibles in Ireland ”

“ Roberts. It is remarkable as representing the fairies looking rather like poachers; but there are not wanting others which speak of their possessing horses and greyhounds, as all gentlemen were supposed to.
One of Mr. Roberts’ tales is in point: he had it from Mr. Hugh Francis18, of Holyhead House, Ruthin, [239] and the latter heard it from Robert Roberts, of Amlwch, who has now been dead about thirty years:—About 105 years ago there lived in the parish of Ỻandyfrydog, near Ỻannerch y Međ, in Anglesey, a man named Ifan Gruffyđ, whose cow happened to disappear one day. ”

“ Some months before his death, he was seen at the Royal Academy’s private view; then, tardily responding to a letter of friendly reproach that David Roberts had addressed to him at Queen Anne Street, he came to Roberts’s studio in Fitzroy Square. He was “broken and ailing,” and had been touched by Roberts’s appeal, but as for disclosing his residence—“You must not ask me,” he said; “but whenever I come to town I will always come to see you.” When Roberts tried to cheer him, he laid his hand on his heart and murmured, “No, no! There is something here that is all wrong.” ”

“ There being no other man-of-war then in company, Mr. Roberts, who had been first lieutenant of the Serpent ever since he held a commission, appointed himself successor to Captain Buckoll; but as a commodore was on the coast at the time, the Admiralty did not consider the death vacancy properly filled, and therefore refused to confirm him. After interring the remains of his late commander, at James Fort, Accra, Lieutenant Roberts immediately collected a large and valuable fleet of merchantmen, chiefly bound to Surinam ”